Sources in Dagestan think that special operation in Khasavyurt could be ethnically motivated

The July 7-8 counterterrorist operation undertaken in the Khasavyurt District and the city of Khasavyurt was ethnically oriented, since only houses where Avars live were searched. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt about it from Magomedrasul Guseinov, a resident of Khasavyurt and Deputy Chair of the Executive Committee of the Avar National Council. As he said, the searches were conducted simultaneously at about 5:40 a.m. in 50 houses.

Today, Dada Umarov, deputy of the Khasavyurt District Assembly, sent a letter of complaint to Igor Tkachov, Public Prosecutor of Dagestan. He wrote that the searches held early in the morning on July 7 in his houses, located in Makhachkala and Khasavyurt, and in the house of his elderly father Rasul Umarov were illegitimate.

We remind you that on that day Khasavyurt and the Khasavyurt District were announced to be a zone of a counterterrorist operation. Mr Umarov has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that in his Makhachkala house power agents broke an armoured door and plastic windows. Later, he found out that 100,000 disappeared from the house.

Dada Umarov said that the search order that he received on July 9 told that he was suspected of "financing militants".